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Open Source Computer Vision Library
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<h1>What is OpenCV</h1>

<p>OpenCV means Open Source Computer Vision Library.
It is a collection of C functions and a few C++ classes that implement
many popular Image Processing and Computer Vision algorithms.</p>

<hr>
<h1><a name="#ref">OpenCV Book</a></h1>

The official book for OpenCV is published by O'Reilly Press
Learning OpenCV  Computer Vision with the OpenCV Library
by Gary Bradski and Adrian Kaehler
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learning-OpenCV-Computer-Vision-Library/dp/0596516134">
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-OpenCV-Computer-Vision-Library/dp/0596516134
</a>

<p>
This book is:
<ol>
<li>A tutorial on computer vision in general
<li>A user's guide to OpenCV
<li>A source of useful working sample code and detailed function descriptions.
</ol>

<hr>

<h1>The key features</h1>

<p>OpenCV provides cross-platform middle-to-high level API that includes
   about 300 functions and a few C++ classes. Also there are
   constantly improving Python bindings to OpenCV, see
   interfaces/swig/python and samples/python.
   OpenCV has no strict dependencies on external libraries,
   though it can use some (such as libjpeg, ffmpeg, GTK+ etc.)
   when it is possible.</p>

<p>OpenCV is free for both non-commercial and commercial use
(see the <a href="license.txt">license</a> for details).</p>

<p><a name="#ipp">OpenCV can be built with Intel&reg; Integrated Performance
Primitives (IPP).</a>
This makes it fast on all the architectures supported by the library,
where the optimal code for each host architecture is chosen at runtime.

More information about IPP can be retrieved at
<a href="http://www.intel.com/software/products/ipp/index.htm">
http://www.intel.com/software/products/ipp/index.htm</a></p>

Then, OpenCV itself can be built with OpenMP support, and, starting with v2.0,
OpenCV includes SSE2-optimized code, so many of the functions run significantly
faster on the modern 32-bit x86 and 64-bit x64 platforms, and even faster on dual-,
quad- and many-core systems.

<hr>

<h1>Who created it</h1>
The list of authors and major contributors can be found at
<a href="http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/Contributors">http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/Contributors</a>.</p>
<hr>

<h1>What's New</h1>
<p>See the <a href="ChangeLog.htm">ChangeLog</a>.
<hr>

<h1>Where to get OpenCV</h1>
<p>Go <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary">http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary</a>.
If it does not work, type "OpenCV" in
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=opencv+computer+vision&btnG=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA&lr=">Google (http://www.google.com)</a>.</p>

<hr>
<h1>How to build it</h1>
<p>See the installation guide: <a href="http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/InstallGuide">http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/InstallGuide</a>.

<hr>

<h1><a name="troubleshooting">If you have a problem with installing/running/using OpenCV</a></h1>

<ol>
<li>Visit OpenCV Wiki-pages at
<a href="http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/">http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/</a> and
look for the information there (and/or add it when you have found a solution)
<li>Search through OpenCV archives at www.yahoogroups.com
(<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OpenCV/">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OpenCV/</a>)
<li>Join OpenCV mailing list at yahoo groups (see FAQs on how to do it) and mail your questions
   (the mailing list will probably migrate to
   <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary">OpenCV's SourceForge site</a>)
<li>Look at the OpenCV sample code, read the reference manual (<a href="opencv.pdf">offline in PDF</a>
    or <a href="http://opencv.willowgarage.com/documentation/index.html">online</a>) 
</ol>

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